Thursday 12 April 2012

Keeping the language alive

One 6th form college in our area is looking to ban Yorkshire words and language in an attempt to equip its students for the future. We discussed this in our office tea break and the three of us - all with deepest darkest Barnsley roots decided we were having none of it, and resolutely agreed to re instate some words we had almost forgotten, back into our every day conversations. I encourage you to join in. I'll start with 2 words that had us in hysterics. Firstly:


"FRAME" - meaning "shape up". In discussions, my colleague said her Mum once used this in conversation about a woman on their road who had lost her husband and wasn't coping at all well. Before counselling was invented, the best advice she received from caring friends and neighbours (poor woman) was that she needed "to frame her sen"!!!!



"SIDE" - meaning to put away. In Yorkshire, when we have finished dinner or tea etc, we "side " the pots. My colleague reminded me of a dreaded phrase that my mother often used when referring to the state of my teenage bedroom - we needed to have a "BIG SIDEATION"



We are now using these 2 words as often as possible in our office - and making ourselves chuckle (alot) in the process.

26 comments:

Mac n' Janet said...

Good for you! I hate it when someone else decides what the appropriate language is. Yawl (you all) need to mind your own business.

Suze said...

OH I can imagine. My mother is from Yorkshire and she still uses many words that just are not Australian English. I don't see why a dialect should be dropped ever. However I have not heard those words used that way before. I may try them in the morning.

Jackie said...

We talked about "Frame thissen" when we met for coffee - I didn't remember that one. But I often leave my husband confused when a Barnsley word I haven't use for years creeps out unexpectedly - 'nesh' being a recent one, and 'snicket' another. He bought me a broad Yorkshire dictionary for my last birthday...will dig it out and see what else I can find, but I do remember there were about 4 meanings of the word 'Bob'. Apart from being my Dad's name, there was...'I'll just bob to't shop' and of course 'it only cost a bob'. Can't remember the other...any thoughts?! xx

Jo said...

Ahhh, how many times was I told to 'frame your sen'? There's so many Yorkshire words or sayings. I often get funny looks when i refer to pack up, or packed lunch, as snap, or trousers as keks.

Shortbread and Ginger said...

How boring life would be without local words! What a daft idea to try and ban them - doubt anything will come of it!
Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger

Little Blue Mouse said...

I'm originally from Barnsley, and will bring these words back into my conversations too. Especially 'frame' which also made me chuckle!
I also like 'laiking' (playing) if you're not already using it.

Rowan said...

It would be very sad if local dialect disappeared from our language. I certainly remember my gran saying she was going to 'side the table' and we were a Cheshire family so that particular word must be a northern word rather than just Yorkshire I think.

Blueberry Heart said...

you know this 'college' will most likely in the coming years obtain an obscene amount of funding to run a 'historical local language' course...makes me so annoyed/sad that dialects and language are regarded as second rate and need to be fixed.. even ATTEMPTING to do this here in proud Geordieland would be met with a fervent "hadaway 'n' sh!te"!
BH x

elaine said...

I am originally from Sheffield and I'm not sure those two words were used there - we always referred to sweeties as 'spice' and if it was raining hard it was 'siling down'.
If you ever read books that are written in dialect it is really hard going. But I don't agree with getting rid of local terminology that's what gives us our identity.

Diane said...

I often use words from Africa that people look at me blankly and wonder what I am talking about. Nigel has learnt most of the now so I just carry on using them LOL. I have to say the French struggle to understand me with my accent, so the odd word thrown in with them really causes confusion. t'other Diane

Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden said...

It sounds to me that regional English speakers might have a case for demanding bi-lingual status!

And more seriously this is akin to the deprivation of native peoples' languages during periods of colonisation. The results of those experiments were social disasters - and we are still dealing with the damage to cultural identity here in NZ.

Mad about Craft said...

Geeoer!

They can't do that!

We Yorkshire people must stand together stop all those PC folks!

Cathy at PotterJotter said...

I always use the phrase we used as kids in Doncaster when someone's sulky and moody, 'he's got a right monk on'. Have no idea where it comes from and my kids wonder what the heck I'm on about! Al Sithee! XCathy

Twiggy said...

Outrageous trying to get rid of Yorkshire phrases !!
I grew up not far from Barnsley - Upton if you know it ? I blimmin love it when I'm in the Pontefract area and I hear all those lovely turns of phrase - how about spice (sweets) wheresthabeen - where have you been. My Uncle used to start most conversations with Na then, sithee :)
Twiggy x

Twiggy said...

By the way, is trying to ban Yorkshire phrases not discrimination ? Can you tell it's got my dander up - I bet you can't say that at work too :)
Twiggy x

ChrisJ said...

Never, never, never should they get away with that. Apart from anything else it smacks of snobbishness -- like when you couldn't get a job if you had a northern accent or didn't wear the old school tie. We used the word 'side' when describing a person. She had no side to her meant she was not at all underhanded secretive or deceitful.

Mister D said...

Tha can't beet a reyt good fettle or a sideation - love it.
We used to have a sideboard where all sorts of stuff got sided away don't think I've heard that term for years now - "have a look int unit" dunt ave same ring to it as " avin a root round sideboard"

A garden just outside Venice said...

Very interesting discussion in your comment form today!
xxxx

Rosie said...

I've enjoyed your post and the comments as well. Although I grew up on the other side of Sheffield to you in N E Derbyshire I've never come across the two examples you used in your past. I think for 'big sideation' we would have said 'a good fettle' or 'bottoming it' and perhaps for 'frame' we'd have said 'sort thi sen out'! I also remember 'spice' for sweets, 'mardy' or 'got a monk on' for sulking and also 'siling it down' and 'black o'er Bill's mother's' for bad weather:)

Ray+Joan said...

"up the wooden hill to bedfordshire" (up the stairs to bed) "Bank fire up"(putting coal on the fire for the night) "bun inoven" (being pregnant)"swilling" (washing down outside with the hosepipe) "Flicks" Cinema or pictures, there's loads more but will have to think about them, great topic love A.J.

Anonymous said...

Language should be both left alone and allowed to digress and take on new shapes. That does not mean banning it! I'm a Londoner and apparently rhyming slang is a lost art. Any accents and dialects are all part and parcel of what makes up the UK. I like lots of accents, Geordie, Liverpool, Manchester and yes the much derided Brummie accent. My mum was evacuated to Yorkshire during the war and loved it. She came back with a strong accent apparently but she since lost it as she was only young.

Anonymous said...

Hi Di , reading this made me chuckle. I am alus telling my eight year old lad to frame yourself. Not that he does!! Sheffield dialect should never be lost. It is these little differences that make life interesting. HOW BORING life would be with no variations. Keep up your fab blog X

Jennyff said...

I must have been away from my native Yorkshire too long, I'd forgotten some of those sayings. Be assured from now on pots will be sided in Scotland after every meal.

Lisa said...

Sounds like the college need to check their policies and have a good sideation with one of them!
Keep local language alive.
Lisa x

BadPenny said...

Brilliant !

Miss Holly said...

I can see that I am going to have to adopt all this wonderful Yorkshire !!! Thank you for a heavenly read!!